February 23, 2008

We happy few who read Matt Welch's epic McCain: The Myth of a Maverick were already well aware of the propensity of the Engineer of the Straight Talk Express to shade the truth in blatant, often clumsy, ways. The revelations this week that he used his position as committee chairman to help the cause of a favored lobbyist (and who would have ever believed that conservatives would rally behind the presumptive GOP nominee after allegations of an affair with the principal lobbyist for Univision !!) were certainly old news to us: Welch describes the controversy with Paxson Communications on p. 197 of his book.

But the audacity of his lies on this issue beggars credulity. Here's a video of Mr. Welch which shows what the state of play is on this week's stories. What really is dispiriting about the whole mess is the pointlessness of his mendacity. No one cares about an ethical mess that occurred (and was fully aired) eight years ago; it's his desire to be such a sanctimonious scold on this and any number of other issues that gives this issue resonance. It's like a recovering alcoholic going through the Program but unable to publicly admit that they could ever do anything foolish or hurtful to others while under the influence.